St. Pete’s Female Player Morgan Continues to Excel

This past Tuesday night, Morgan Kathan, the daughter of the original Puryear Park co-founder Greg (aka Echeva), was back at it -competing against 9 other men on the St. Pete Cancha. 

Morgan is back in town for a week after recently moving to Vermont to be with her new husband and her new job.  For years, she spent hundreds of hours practicing on the jai-alai court and has gotten pretty good.  She has played with the boy’s numerous times and competing just fine. She’s a good catcher on both sides (except for the fast ones where she gets out of the way!) and has a strong forehead and serve.       

Her father got her going on jai-alai a few years ago.  Greg was the one that brought out the old 4×8 panels of plywood in 1990 as a makeshift rebote ball when the court was nothing but a tennis practice wall and a side wall for a racquetball court.

Excelling in sports, Morgan had an outstanding soccer career in High School by scoring 97 goals and led High School Championship teams in not only soccer but snowboarding and golf.  At Keene State College in New Hampshire, she studied to become a Physical Education and Heath Teacher and continued to excel at soccer by scoring many important game winning goals. 

Morgan then moved to St. Pete after college to take over her Dad’s house and started throwing the pelota at Puryear Park.  Her teaching job in Trinity cut down on time available to play jai-alai, but she never lost interest. 

She recently took a teaching job in Burlington Vermont so she and new husband could enjoy snowboarding and biking.  She was recently named the Head Coach of Vergennes High School Varsity Girls soccer for next season.

Morgan really enjoys joining her father at the court because the regular players are very helpful and patient with her.  She didn’t get any wins Tuesday night, but she has a few wins under her belt over the past few years and has aced quite a few points on serves off the boys.

Several months ago, we had a group out there and Corky (the ex-Tampa Jai-alai pro who is a regular there now) showed up and was impressed.  “Great form!  I like it” he said.  

We wish her the best and look forward to her next appearance, but it won’t be as frequent unfortunately.